In what seemed impossible, the Miami Heat beat the Dallas Mavericks in Game Six of the NBA Finals, 95-92, to claim the franchise’s first championship.  It’s not that the Heat were huge underdogs to win tonight’s game, but in the fact that they won four straight games after going down two games to none at the beginning of the series.

But, before I go any further, I have to give props to the Dallas Mavericks who easily could have been the world champions instead.  The only problem was that they had to defend the Heat’s Dwyane Wade, who was simply off-the-charts the last four games.  In any case, the Mavs will probably sign Jason Terry, who shined during the postseason, and keep this team together to contend the next few seasons.  Kudos to them.

At the opening of tonight’s game, it looked like the Mavs were going to run away with the game early, but thanks to Wade scoring seven points in under two minutes for the Heat, the end of the first quarter wasn’t as bad as it could have been.  In the second quarter, the Heat just continued to pour it on, outscoring the Mavs for the quarter, 26-18 and taking a one point lead into the half.

But, the second half of the game couldn’t have been played any more tightly.

The third quarter was a back and forth between the two combatants with the Heat edging out the Mavs 22-20 for the quarter.  And the fourth quarter was even tighter, in fact, it couldn’t have been any closer as both teams scored 24 points.  Considering the final score, that two point advantage in the third quarter was huge as it would have dictated different execution by the Mavs to win the game in the final seconds.  Instead, Jason Terry had to take an awkward looking three-pointer to tie the game that clanged off the rim into the hands of Wade.

It was appropriate that Dwyane Wade got the final rebound of the NBA Finals because it all started with him for the Miami Heat, the NBA champs.

A special congratulations to Gary Payton and Antoine Walker for getting their first ring after being in the league for at least a decade, being All Stars, making the playoffs multiple times, but just not getting over the hump to get a ring.  Now they both have one.

However, the player I’m most happy to get a ring is Alonzo Mourning, who in October of 2000 announced that he would never play basketball again due to kidney failure and needing to have a transplant, which he received from his cousin.  Tonight, he came up big when Shaquille O’Neal couldn’t.  Mourning, in only 14 minutes of play, scored eight points, pulled down six rebounds, and most importantly, blocked five shots.  Zo is a true warrior and inspiration.  I’m glad that he was able to have a very tangible presence in a big win, a championship clinching win, in the Finals.

Congratulations Miami Heat!  You won’t have far to go to Disney World.